A death at the Westside Emergency Housing Center prompted an investigation. Here's what it found and what the city plans to do differently.

A February 2023 death of a person with several disabilities at the Westside Emergency Housing Center prompted an investigation into the site — the city of Albuquerque’s largest shelter, which on any given night can house hundreds of people.

Disability Rights New Mexico, the state’s designated disability protection and advocacy agency, is tasked with monitoring and investigating facilities that serve people with disabilities.

Although the investigation didn’t find that neglect at the WEHC “substantially” led to the individual’s death, the report identified other areas of concern including slow emergency response time, violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and staffing shortages.

Holly Mell, an attorney with DRNM who visited the WEHC to investigate the death, said the initial allegation — that a person with disabilities fell from a top bunk and died — were unsubstantiated, but she still had “questions” if the death could have been prevented.

“I want the community to have more transparency with what the limitations of that facility are, what the dangers are,” Mell said. “Not only to get things improved, but also so people can make safe decisions for themselves.”

Nine people have died in the WEHC in the past year, according to a spokesperson for Heading Home, which contracts with the city to run the shelter.

According to APD data presented in the report, between Jan. 1, 2020, and June 14, 2023, APD received more than 1,200 dispatch calls to the WEHC — approximately 30 calls per month, on average. While the largest number of calls (363) were to respond to “disturbances,” more than 200 were in response to suicide. Thirteen times, a person was dead by the time APD arrived.

On Feb. 16, an individual staying at the WEHC died after a fall, reportedly from the top bunk. A spokesperson for Heading Home said the bed in question did not have a mattress on the top bunk, only the bottom; other evidence cited in the report supported the person may have fallen from a standing position instead. Twice earlier that week, the individual was admitted and discharged from the hospital.

That night, it took emergency services 42 minutes to arrive at the scene — almost triple the average time it took for emergency services to respond in the city as a whole.

According to data provided to the Journal by the New Mexico Department of Health, Albuquerque Ambulance Service took, on average, 15.6 minutes to respond to calls on that date; Albuquerque Fire Rescue took, on average, 11.3 minutes.

The report cites a review of APD lapel camera video from that night, in which an officer says, “The shelter is, unfortunately, kind of far away from the city” — although a Heading Home spokesperson said they have not struggled with slow emergency response time.

Mell said, due to the frequency of calls and the remoteness of the WEHC — 18 miles from Downtown — she recommends that medical staff be employed full time at the facility for a more immediate response.

“Every time I was there, there were ambulances and other emergency services there,” Mell said. “There’s clearly a need for frequent emergency services.”

In addition to primary care clinics run by a couple of nonprofits, the city employs two emergency medical technicians at the WEHC, said Katie Simon, a spokesperson for the Department of Health, Housing and Homelessness, in an email to the Journal.

But after 9 p.m., there are no EMTs on staff — despite that the majority of dispatch calls made to APD happened outside of business hours. Simon said the city is looking for funding sources to employ emergency responders at night.

Accessibility

Although Mell said DRNM couldn’t verify the person fell from a top bunk, she believes the beds pose a fall risk. At the time of investigation the beds didn’t include ladders to reach the top bunk; the report alleges that small, loose chairs were next to some of the bunks, “presumably … being used as a step up to get into the upper bunk.”

Simon said that a dorm-by-dorm renovation of the WEHC includes new beds, lighting, and flooring. So far, the city has started to improve one dorm.

“The WEHC was built prior to modern standards of accessibility, and the building does have challenges,” Simon said.

The renovation will tackle accessibility issues and bring the building up to code, she continued.

DRNM identified other accessibility issues including a step into the showers, preventing a wheelchair from entering, a push button to operate some of the showers that is too high for people in wheelchairs or using shower chairs, not enough shower chairs and a lack of a secure storage area for medications.

Simon said the dorm renovations, which includes bathroom and shower changes, will address some of the concerns including ADA accessibility. The city has already installed seven handicap ramps for showers, she said.

Staffing

Heading Home monitors nine dorms at the WEHC. The agency employs 56 people at the facility; 12 people work the night shift. The goal is a 2-to-60 ratio of staffs to residents, said a spokesperson for the nonprofit.

Currently, they’re short 17 people.

“Like every business in the nation, we are struggling with hiring challenges,” the agency wrote in an email. “That said, we are not fully staffed.”

This winter, 635 has been the highest number of people staying at the facility, Simon said. The maximum capacity is 660.

On the night of the death last February, 450 people were being sheltered at the WEHC, according to Heading Home. But just one staff member and one supervisor were rotating between about half of the dorms, the report alleges, which can house about 60 people each.

Mell said she worries that there isn’t enough staff to handle a full evacuation of the facility.

“The more people that they’re putting in, I think the less safe it is,” Mell said. “...There should be capacity limits if you don't have enough staff there.”

Heading Home says it has made several policy changes since the investigation, including alerting the medical team of any health concerns of someone coming into the WEHC and evacuating the dorms when there is a death.